It is a known fact that when a person is surrounded by people that always think and behave in a positive matter, it will also influence those around them. One of the challenges when starting a business and at an early stage of the business, keeping your head can become quite a challenge. With such overwhelming amount of things to do, some can easily fall into a negative mindset. According to Remez Sasson, a positive mind anticipates happiness, joy, health and a successful outcome of every situation and action (Remez). Therefore, if you surround yourself with individuals either within your working environment or around your personal life, the end of your business may become predictable.  Yet, many still today do not take the time to make sure that their mindset is not constantly influenced by negativity. A recent article written by Frandsen at entrepreneur.com stated that “negativity is a pattern of pessimistic thinking that spreads like a virus, causing morale problems and ultimately impacting our organization’s success.” (Frandsen, 2009).
                 Do you believe that negativity can impact your business? Do you have examples? Lest us know what you think?

Sources:

• Remez Sasson. The Power of Positive Thinking. Viewed on November 23, 2009. Retrieved from http://www.successconsciousness.com/index_000009.htm
• Frandsen, Betty Maclaughlin (March, 2009). Overcoming Workplace Negativity.  Entrepreneur. Viewed on November 23, 2009. Retrieved from http://www.entrepreneur.com/tradejournals/article/197677184.html

Hi fellow sharks!  I hope your hunt for funding is going as planned.  If, however, you are finding it difficult to find an angel investor, don’t give up.  Angels are not the only source of funding available out there.  Let’s take a look at your other options:  As I mentioned a few weeks ago, Government grants and bank loans may not be the best solution for you at this stage in your entrepreneurial journey because you represent too much risk for them.  So what I suggest is to slowly start building your credit score by using personal or business credit cards which will eventually allow you to apply for those grants.

Also, now that your business is at its early stage you can resort to seed funding through seed firms.  These firms are like angel investors because they invest in relatively small amounts at the early stages of a business.  However, they are companies that do it as a business as opposed to being individual people which makes it easier for you to reach them.  You can simply go to their website and send them an email.  However, seed firms are only interested in financing businesses at the early stages.  Once your business has picked up they expect you to get your funding from venture capital funds.  In fact, most seed firms help you find vc’s.  So, what i’m saying is that it is possible to get the funding you need but in small steps.  Building your business credit and starting off with seed firms will surely lead to angel investors and Government grants in the future.

Here is a website that will get you started:  http://www.searchca.net/users/folder.asp?FolderID=3041

How has your search for funding gone so far?  What are investors telling you about your pitch?  If you have any questions don’t hesitate to ask us!

– zilia

For this week’s profile of successful businesses, we will profile the upward success of one of the world’s most powerful companies – Google

From Nothing Special to Something Big

Google was founded in 1998 by Sergey Brin and Larry Page, then Stanford PhD students. They created a search engine using an algorithm that would produce better results than its competitors, and attracted users to their service with a user-friendly, clutter-free interface.

Although they were against text advertisements in the beginning, they decided to allow simple text advertisements on their website to generate revenue. It is these advertisements that form a large share of Google’s revenue today. The success of Google’s ad program comes from its ability to act as a one-stop portal, and there is one company policy that promoted this.

Innovation Time Off

Unlike most companies, Google allows its employees to take 20% of their work time to work on projects that interest them. This is the equivalent of one full day of work per week. Although some companies may balk at this, it proved to be very successful for Google. The “Innovation Time Off” initiative, as it is officially called, has been the origin of Google staples such as Google News and Gmail, which have allowed Google to turn from a simple search engine to a one-stop portal for everything on the web. Needless to say, the “Innovation Time Off” program has been a great success for the company.  Also, this is also a popular program with its employees, who have benefits such as free, professionally catered food and a relaxed work environment.  Had Google not had such a great work environment, these innovations may have never been devised and brought to action.

You’re probably thinking right now that Google is a good place to work. But why would you want to work for Google when you could start your own company that can grow to be even bigger than them?  Do you have dreams and ambitions to start up the next “big” company? Share your experience with us, and tell us about your successes and challenges.

Stay tuned for next week, where we will have something special in store for you. See you then!

-Andrew

Morning Fellow Sharks!

 

Ah nothing like the approaching holiday season as we start putting the Christmas decorations on….unlike the retail stores that already started weeks ago! Funny how quickly the days are passing and how fast the world around us is developing, especially in the digital and online world. Speaking about this, do you remember the time when we had try and figure out the impact the music had n our society? Especially when such meaningful words came out of them…

Well with the evolution and abundance of information available, one kid definitely had a vision. His name is Milun Tesovic, a British Columbia university student who got top honours recently at a global entrepreneur contest. Milium beat out 32 competitors to win the 2009 Global Student Entrepreneur Awards in Kansas City. The 24-year-old Simon Fraser University student runs MetroLyrics, the world’s third largest Internet song lyrics company.

The site, which provides legal, licensed song lyrics while compensating artists and writers, receives more than 35 million unique page views each month. After signing with lyric provider Gracenote earlier this year, the site now provides almost 800,000 song lyrics to music lovers – completely for free. The business administration student started his first company, Metroleap, at age 15 after seeing a demand from the consumer and music industry to find music lyrics online. He became incorporated in 2002.

See more from this story at CTV British Columbia Website: http://www.ctvbc.ctv.ca

 

So here’s my question: do you think it is still possible for a young entrepreneur to capitalize on an online venture that revolves around music? With the emergence of so many music discovery stores and music relates sites, what is the next big online music related idea?

 

We’d love nothing more than to hear from you, all comments are welcome! And don’t forget to follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SwimWithSharks

 

– Sharks Team –

 Many traditional brick and mortar businesses can take advantage of Google maps. For those who are unfamiliar, Google maps offers a very detailed map of every city, and is used by many people for navigation. Google street view is an enhancement of this, allowing anyone to get a detailed view of any street in a particular city.

Why does this matter to you? Because you can list your business with Google for all to see, and its free! The yellow page are becoming a thing of the past, and chances are, most of your new business will research your company through the internet before ever making that first call.

Unlike many other forms of online advertising, you do not need to design a website or put much work into web development at all. everything can be done within the Google maps framework. Google local business center is almost like an online business card. With the power to track where clients are coming from, and the ability to attract new clients at no extra charge, is there any reason not to do this?

For more information visit: www.google.ca/lbc

-Dan- (Sharks Team)

Created nine years ago, Priceminister.com has managed to become E-bay’s main challenger on the French market, becoming the second online reseller of used goods in the country. It is interesting to see that the company owes most of its success to its founder and current CEO, Pierre Kosciusko-Morizet (PKM).

PKM didn’t really take the usual path to launch his business. In 2000, after graduating from HEC, he decided he wanted to create a website where people could sell their used items, at a time when Ebay was already growing. To find some capital, he didn’t go to the banks… Too many people do that! He decided to read the newspapers and wait for announcements of French CEOs to be fired with important golden parachutes. He then called them at their office after 5pm, in order not to be filtered by their assistants and offered them to invest in his project. That is how, by the end of 2000, he had raised 700 000 Euros from 60 investors (out of the 200 contacted).

But the most clever part of his strategy was that once the CEOs had invested in the company, it was easier to get them involved in the project. That is how PKM managed to get advice from a dream team of counselors, all experts on their markets as they had run the most important companies on the sector for years!

With an estimated turnover of 35 million Euros, Priceminister.com still has a lot of potential growth. Who knows what clever technique PKM will find next to become the new Ebay…

-Alex-

A couple of years ago, a good friend of mine told me the story of how his dad was starting a new business with one of his ‘friends’. At the very beginning, I remember his father being very excited and energetic about the new business. Nine months later, his father had sold his part to his ‘friend’!  Why? It turned out that his partner did not appreciate to work more than 35 hours a week, and became famous de delegate more than to actually work.

                The example above is not something we don’t hear often about. In fact, it’s a problem that happens quite often. A recent article was writing by Scott Gerber regarding this issue, and he provides the top 10 worst partners for your start-up…

1. Mr. Employee
2. Mr. Perfectionist
3. Mr. College Buddy
4. Mr. Inventor
5. Mr. Right
6. Mr. Dreamer
7. Mr. Spender
8. Mr. CEO
9. Mr. Vacation
10. Mr. Personal Issues (which I talked about in my last blog)

The link at the bottom provides you with an explanation of each point and how to deal with these potential partners. In the end, if you can, start your own business, without any partners, because the main advantage you have, is complete control. Do you agree with the top 10 list? Are there any others that you can think of? And do you agree with my point of view regarding going solo? Tell us what you think.

The Shark Team

 

http://www.entrepreneur.com/startingabusiness/youngentrepreneurscolumnistscottgerber/article202434.html

When starting a new Business, we can become overwhelmed by the amount of work to do when starting a new business. You have a lot to think about, issues like which materials to use in your product, where to set-up location, how are you going to finance the business, who are you going to hire, what are the legal issues involved, etc.  However, there is often an issue that may also be forgotten, or not talked enough – personal issues/problems. 

When starting a new business, and even in everyday life, you have to mentally separate business and your personal life. Why? Let’s assume that you decided to open a new business, but during the middle of the process, your wife/husband decides to file for divorce. Now, instead of completely dedicating yourself to starting your new and exciting business, you are now forced to devote more time to this new issue.

If you plan on starting a new business, make sure that your personal issues are left at home, and/or make sure you are on top of your personal life, because if you are not, your only obstacle in order for your business to succeed, is yourself!  

I’ve seen businesses with potential to become successful, but their owners were not on top of their personal life. Do you have or know someone that could of had a great business, but failed because of his/her personal issues? Or, do you believe that I’m not making a valid point? If so, then please share with us.

 

The Shark Team

Do you social network? Many people, including the entire Sharks Team, participate in this relatively new phenomenon. Several years back, all the buzz was around Facebook, and before that came MySpace and Friendster. Currently, the website Twitter is now widely seen as Facebook’s main competitor and the new hot item in social networking. However, not too long ago, Twitter was a virtual unknown. How did it become so successful?

Early Beginnings

Twitter started off with humble roots, being conceived in a brainstorming session as a means to communicate via SMS to a small group of people. The group who conceived this started working on the project in March 2006, with Twitter being formed as a company in April 2007. Later that year, in the South by Southwest festival, company officials created a lot of buzz when placed screens in the conference hallways that only displayed Twitter feeds. This was the first real glimpse of Twitter, and marked the beginning of its growth and success. Keep in mind that this was during the early days of social media, when Facebook was receiving heavy coverage due to its success.

Celebrity Feuds

As Twitter was starting to enjoy success, they benefitted from a heavily publicized “feud” involving Ashton Kutcher and CNN. The website had grown so much in popularity that Ashton Kutcher and CNN were competing to have the first account to have one million followers. This “feud” was widely covered in the media, and the growth of Twitter has only gone up since then.

Has this post gotten you interested in Twitter? Or are you already a user of this service? Post your thoughts on this subject and be heard, or come follow us on Twitter! You will be able to find regular updates posted at: twitter.com/SwimWithSharks

Until next time,

Andrew